Sunday, January 4, 2009

Here is a poem from my book on Afghanistan about a mountain roadman. I met this man at about 3,800 metres in the Hindu Kush mountains building a high mountain road with an old and worn shovel. It moved me greatly. Bob

>Buskashi, the game of mountain men. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Mountain Roadman

Flesh against wood and metalHis mettle against mountains of rockNow broken in body and spiritHe who carved these roads aloft

His face was as worn as his shovelBuilding roads in the Hindu KushAnd his ageing back bent doubleFrom all the boulders he'd pushed

His reward but a sear of flour a dayReceived humbly in callused handsAs he prays, "Allah O Akbar"His reward can't be in this land

Anjouman, Badakhshan, June 1995

It is published in my book, Mountains of our Mind - Afghanistan, published by tara press, New Delhi. The book can be purchased through the website www.indiaresearchpress